Of late there has been a lot of talk on and offline about Google’s new Algorithm named ‘Hummingbird‘. Hummingbird unlike Penguin and Panda is not a algorithm update, but a whole new algorithm. So what does this mean for content marketing and search results?

I reached out to the professional blogging community and asked the question “In the light of Google’s new ‘Hummingbird’ algorithm, what would you say are the top three essential blogging techniques for success?” Here are some of the replied we received:

Dechay Watts

The intent behind Hummingbird is to really connect people searching for information with the best possible content available. The more relevant your blog topics are to humans and the better they answer real questions, the more successful your blog will be. Google isn’t trying to make SEO more tricky or difficult. It’s trying to make search better for the user by returning more accurate results. So, be honest with what your target audience really wants to hear and don’t try to “trick” the search engines with overanalyzing keyword reports or forcing the issue of “ranking #1” for a word. Top 3 techniques:

Listen to the questions people ask your sales team and provide answers in a blog post. Here are two examples of blogs that take this approach. These two posts are the most successful blogs for both of these companies simply because they provide honest, helpful insight into commonly asked questions.

1. Pay attention to the news in your industry to identify trends or challenges. Write blog posts that offer solutions to what others deem a challenge. 2. Poll your customers or clients and ask them what they would like you to cover. This is a great way to be authentic in the information you include in your posts and improve your position as a thought leader to your customer base.

Dechay Watts is the Chief Content Strategist at SPROUT Content.

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Ivan Widjaya

Here’s my top 3 blogging techniques for success:

1. Stop focusing on your main keyword and everything technical that comes with it – e.g. keyword density. Just like PageRank, it’s no longer relevant today. As Hummingbird is essentially a “conversational search engine”, you should focus on long tail keywords.

2. Focus on your audience: Write on what many people in your industry want to know about.

3. Blog like a real blogger: In my opinion, a blog post – including one in a business blog – should be conversational and semi-formal on certain extent. This will help your posts to “align” with the Hummingbird engine.

Chris Kreinczes

Very briefly, I would have to query how you define “success”.

For commercial success:

1. Intriguing headline which doesn’t give too much away. 2. Short article length which gets to the point quickly 3. Obvious and enticing links to other relevant articles at the end/during the article the reader is currently on

However, at Springwise we also pay heed to these guidelines:

1. Objectivity and integrity 2. Conveying maximum information in a short article while maintaining a sense of style (easier said than done) 3. Being selective an only publishing the best material, rather than blitzing a huge wealth of content.

Chris Kreinezes is the Managing Director of Springwise, a London-based independent innovation firm, that scans the globe for the most promising new business ideas.

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I would like to thank all who contributed to this article with their invaluable professional insights. [email protected]